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England finished their Women\u2019s World Cup Group D matches in top spot and with a 100% record after Ellen White\u2019s brace steered them to a 2-0 win against Japan in Nice.<\/p>\nEngland finished their Women\u2019s World Cup Group D matches in top spot and with a 100% record after Ellen White\u2019s brace steered them to a 2-0 win against Japan in Nice.<\/p>\n
The Lionesses, who had already qualified for the last 16 and needed to avoid defeat to win the group, went ahead just before the quarter-hour mark through White\u2019s cool finish following good work by Georgia Stanway.<\/p>\n
White then slotted in her second, and third of the tournament, with six minutes of normal time remaining having been teed up by substitute Karen Carney.<\/p>\n
Japan goalkeeper Ayaka Yamashita made a number of fine saves during the contest at the Allianz Riviera, after her counterpart Karen Bardsley had done well to tip a Kumi Yokoyama free-kick onto the bar in ninth minute.<\/p>\n
Phil Neville\u2019s England will now face a third-placed finisher in the next round \u2013 either China (Group B), or Cameroon or New Zealand (Group E), or Chile or Thailand (Group F).<\/p>\n
Their opponents will be determined on Thursday when Groups E and F conclude, and the match will take place on Sunday in Valenciennes.<\/p>\n
Having stressed in the build-up that he wanted to win the match and would pick his \u201cbest team\u201d to achieve that, Neville made eight changes to his starting XI from the 1-0 win against Argentina five days earlier.<\/p>\n
That included bringing fit-again forward Toni Duggan into the attack, along with White and Rachel Daly, as Beth Mead, Jodie Taylor \u2013 the goalscorer against Argentina \u2013 and Nikita Parris dropped out.<\/p>\n
Japan, World Cup winners in 2011 and semi-final victors over England en route to finishing as runners-up in 2015, threatened early on through Yokoyama as the forward sent a shot over and saw a free-kick heading for the top corner superbly touched on to the bar by Bardsley.<\/p>\n
England then grabbed the lead in the 14th minute when Stanway turned Hina Sugita and held her off to play an excellent through-ball to White, who deftly lifted an effort past Yamashita and into the bottom corner.<\/p>\n
With Neville\u2019s side remaining on the front foot, Yamshita made two good saves soon after as she kept out strikes from Jill Scott and Stanway, the second being particularly impressive.<\/p>\n
Yokoyama then had a curler dealt with by Bardsley before Daly latched on to a long ball from Keira Walsh and brought another decent save out of Yamashita.<\/p>\n
Yamashita excelled once again in the 59th minute as she pushed away Duggan\u2019s goal-bound effort.<\/p>\n
England then survived a number of scares as Japan stepped up their search for an equaliser, with substitute Yuika Sugasawa to the fore.<\/p>\n
Steph Houghton executed a perfectly-timed tackle in the box in the 66th minute to take the ball away from Sugasawa, who then had a shot saved by Bardsley.<\/p>\n
Sugasawa then steered the ball into the side-netting on the stretch, before White popped up with her second goal, beating Yamashita from just inside the box as she connected with Carney\u2019s threaded pass.<\/p>\n
Bardsley subsequently denied Sugasawa once again before the full-time whistle, which left second-placed Japan, who had also secured last-16 qualification prior to the match, set to face Holland or Canada in the
\nlast 16.<\/p>\n